Media outlets access enhanced multi-platform content at no charge, with alerts when we have new content on issues or from regions you may select. Once we receive the filled out form below, you'll receive a message with the passcode/s. Welcome!

*These fields are required

*Media Outlet name

*Media Outlet City/State

Contact name

Contact phone

*Email address or fax #

*Media Outlet type

Additional (beyond the state you are located in) content that you would like to receive

Newscasts

PNS Daily Newscast - May 24, 2019

President Trump's reported to be ready to sign disaster relief bill without money for border security. Also on the Friday rundown: House bills would give millions a path to citizenship; and remembering California’s second-deadliest disaster.

NY Kids’ Insured Rate Stalls, Reversing Longtime Trend

Immigrant children in New York were more likely to be uninsured than other groups in the state in 2017, likely due to parents' fear of interacting with the government. (Sgt. Randall A. Clinton/Marines)

The research found no state made progress to get more children insured between 2016 and 2017, including New York.

Report co-author Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown Center, says many uninsured children come from immigrant families. And national politics made parents afraid to seek services.

"A lot of uninsured kids are citizen kids, but they might have a parent who's an immigrant,” she points out. “And those families are increasingly worried about interacting with the government."

Alker adds that Congress repeatedly trying to cut Medicaid, and the Trump administration reducing support for the Affordable Care Act, led to fewer adults being insured – and when adults go without health coverage, their children often do, as well.

Kate Breslin, president and CEO of the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, says the report shows there was no improvement in the rate of uninsured children in New York in 2017.

"For many years, there was a trend, a beautiful trajectory, where we were seeing fewer and fewer uninsured kids,” she points out. “And, for the first time in several years, we see a flattening out."

In New York state, about 2.7 percent of children were uninsured in 2017, which means New York is doing better than many other states. The rate increased only slightly from 2016.